cold emailing galleries, do you actually do it or is it something we say we do?
okay so I've been full-time for about eight months now and I keep telling myself I need to start reaching out to galleries properly, like not just liking their posts and hoping they notice me lol. but every time I sit down to write an email I freeze up. like what do you even say?? "here's my work, please look at it??" feels insane.
I sent exactly ONE cold email back in art school and the gallerist replied with just "no thanks" and I think about it every day honestly.
so who here has actually done the cold email thing and gotten a yes? what did you say? or are we all just waiting to get noticed like it's a period drama 💀 give me the real stats here
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I've sent maybe a dozen in my life. Got one show out of it, which is not nothing but also not a strategy I'd recommend building a career on.
The thing is, galleries get hundreds of these. The gallerist who replied "no thanks", that's not personal, that's just the volume. A real human being looked at it and answered in two words. That's more courteous than most.
What worked better for me: go to openings. Not to hand them a card or push your portfolio, just to look at what they show and talk about the work in the room. If you're any good at looking at paintings, people remember that. Then when you eventually send something, it's not cold anymore.
But I think the real question nobody wants to sit with is whether your work is actually ready for the spaces you're emailing. Be honest about that first. A good gallery showing a mediocre painting does nobody any favours.
This is very sensible advice ji. Myself I never had to do this cold email because in our tradition the work speaks through the community, not through writing letters. But I see my younger students struggling with this same thing, they want to send their portfolio here and there, they get one rejection and feel finished.
What you said about going to openings and just looking, that is the old way only. In Mithila, we learn by watching the elder sister or mother or auntie paint, not by asking. You sit, you see, you learn what the work needs. Then when time comes, they already know you.
That gallerist who replied "no thanks", at least they replied. That means they saw. In our village sometimes people will not even look at your work if they do not know your family. So a reply is something.🙂
oh I love this perspective so much, thank you for sharing it. there's something about the Mithila tradition that I think about a lot actually, how the learning happens through watching and being around it, not through asking permission. that feels almost radical now, in the era of "submit your portfolio here" forms. like you said, by the time the moment comes, they already know you. that's not nothing.
I think what gets me is that I don't HAVE that kind of community yet, not really. I moved cities after art school and I'm still building those in-person connections, so cold emailing feels like the only door I can knock on. but hearing how it worked for you, through the old way... it makes me wonder if I should spend more energy on just showing up to things and being present rather than crafting the perfect email. thank you for this 🙏
okay but "a real human being looked at it and answered in two words, that's more courteous than most" is genuinely kind of a comforting reframe haha. I've been replaying that "no thanks" like a personal insult for years and you're right, they literally just... answered. which is more than a lot of people get.
the openings thing makes so much sense though. I think I get in my head about being Perceived as The Artist Who's Networking and then I clam up and just stand by the wine table. but you're right that if you actually talk about the work people remember that way more than an email. do you still do cold outreach at all now or did you fully switch over to just showing up?